MeganBloomgren

Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director

Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director for the Department of the Interior

Megan Bloomgren served as “acting deputy chief of staff and communications director” for the Department of Interior for roughly the first 100 days of the Trump administration. In that position, she directed “communications and policy-related actions for Secretary Zinke.”

Former Interior employee Megan Bloomgren has “gone back and forth through the government-industry revolving door,” bouncing between the federal government and pro-energy industry groups. From 2008 to 2011, Bloomgren was a Vice President for the Chamber of Commerce’s energy industry front group, which aimed to “unify energy stakeholders and policymakers… to ensure that America’s supply of fuel and power is adequate, stable, and affordable.” After that, Bloomgren made partner at the DCI Group, a “Republican public relations, lobbying and consulting shop” with major ties to the oil industry. DCI, which was subpoenaed in 2016 for all records “relating to their role in helping ExxonMobil” with “climate change denial,” was paid more than $1.6 million to lobby for ExxonMobil while Bloomgren worked there. Bloomgren was also a DCI partner when it was paid $5 million by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the coal industry trade association. More recently, DCI “oversaw crisis communications work” for the Dakota Access pipeline company and “may have helped create fake Twitter profiles depicting young women (and celebrities) espousing pro-pipeline talking points.”

In June 2017, it was announced that Megan Bloomgren was leaving the Department of the Interior to be a Vice President at the American Petroleum Institute, the “top oil and natural gas lobby.”

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (Resource Development on Public Lands)

While Bloomgren worked at DCI Group, a public relations and lobbying firm, DCI Group worked with, and received $5 million from, ACCCE, a trade organization that advocates on behalf of coal-fueled electricity and the coal fleet.

From 2008 to 2011, Megan Bloomgren was a Vice President for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s energy industry front group, which aimed to “unify energy stakeholders and policymakers… to ensure that America’s supply of fuel and power is adequate, stable, and affordable.”

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s website, the purpose of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “is to unify energy stakeholders and policymakers behind a common strategy to ensure that America’s supply of fuel and power is adequate, stable, and affordable, while protecting national security, and improving the environment.”

Until she took the job at Interior, Megan Bloomgren was a partner at the DCI Group, a “Republican public relations, lobbying and consulting shop.”

While she was a partner, DCI was paid more than $1.6 million to lobby for Exxon Mobil and subpoenaed “for records relating to their role in helping ExxonMobil with climate change denial.”

DCI has been paid at least $5 million by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the coal industry trade association. DCI also “oversaw crisis communications work” for the company building the Dakota Access pipeline and “may have helped create fake Twitter profiles depicting young women (and celebrities) espousing pro-pipeline talking points.”

Megan Bloomgren became a partner at the DCI Group, “a Republican public relations, lobbying and consulting shop” in 2011, and worked there for almost six years before taking the job at Interior.

In the five years Megan Bloomgren worked at DCI Group, DCI Group was paid a total of $1,620,000 to lobby for Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil paid DCI Group $320,000 to lobby in 2011, $320,000 in 2012, $320,000 in 2013, $320,000 in 2014, $320,000 in 2015, and $20,000 in 2016.

In April 2016, while Megan Bloomgren was still working at DCI Group, DCI was “subpoenaed… for records relating to their role in helping ExxonMobil” with “climate change denial.” DCI created a “now-defunct” website that “promoted climate change denial and which received funding from Exxon.”